12.8.1 Arithmetic operators

Arithmetic operators occur in arithmetic operations, i. e. in expressions that contain integers or reals. There are two kinds of operators: Binary and unary arithmetic operators. Binary operators are listed in table (12.2), unary operators are listed in table (12.3).


Table 12.2: Binary arithmetic operators

OperatorOperation


+ Addition
- Subtraction
* Multiplication
** Exponentiation
/ Division
Div Integer division
Mod Remainder



With the exception of Div and Mod, which accept only integer expressions as operands, all operators accept real and integer expressions as operands.

Remark The exponentiation operator (**) is available for overloading (chapter 15, page 821), but is not defined on any of the standard Pascal types (floats and/or integers).

For binary operators, the result type will be integer if both operands are integer type expressions. If one of the operands is a real type expression, then the result is real.

As an exception, division (/) results always in real values.


Table 12.3: Unary arithmetic operators

OperatorOperation


+ Sign identity
- Sign inversion



For unary operators, the result type is always equal to the expression type. The division (/) and Mod operator will cause run-time errors if the second argument is zero.

The sign of the result of a Mod operator is the same as the sign of the left side operand of the Mod operator. In fact, the Mod operator is equivalent to the following operation:

  I mod J = I - (I div J) * J

But it executes faster than the right hand side expression.